On Thursday evening, we had cleared the living and dining room floor back to its original layer and it just need some minor improvements (tacking down a few buckled pieces near the heat vent where moisture had seeped in and scraping off any remnants from the laminate). The very sticky black and white laminate in the hallway has been left in place until we are ready to sand and re-varnish all the wood floors; a much bigger project than we can take on right now.
The kitchen was the Problem Room on the first floor. The stove was nearly radioactive and coated with some (probably) highly combustible grime. Four layers of laminate covered the kitchen floor, the counter top had at least as many layers of dust and grease, and the refrigerator hummed its way to a dust/fur heart attack.
While Russ plotted our plan of attack, I checked out some more "donation furniture." I have been very fortunate to have friends with furniture-that-needs-a-new-home and we have happily taken in the donation; the most recent from some running buddies in the shape of a hardwood oak dining room table, a hutch for my inherited china, and 6 gorgeous chairs - all the pieces part of a matching set. We are moving up in the world!
On Saturday, before I headed up to Peekskill, I hunted for carpet for the master bedroom with my mom and sister. We picked a beige color that will go with whatever decor we eventually decide on. The discount store we love to frequent in Yonkers (aptly named National Wholesale Liquidators) also had vinyl tiles which would be an inexpensive short-term fix for the horrendous floor situation in the kitchen. Into the cart, I piled mops, brooms, bleach, toilet cleaner, contractor bags, reams of paper towels, toilet seats, a shower curtain, various cleaning sponges and a plastic 40 gallon tub (in which to carry it all!).
We trooped up to Peekskill armed for combat and met my brother and Russ in the driveway hacking at the overgrown bushes edging the drive. They had been shopping at Home Depot for rakes, gardening clippers, hackers and thrashers; all this in addition to the Thursday night excursion to Home Depot for a shop vacuum, dust masks, gloves, hammers, screwdrivers, pry bar, scrappers ... By the end of this renovation, I hope we own some stock in some home renovation conglomerate!
All weekend long we worked (and visited Home Depot one more time for extension leads, brillo pads, wood floor cleaner, buckets, carpet pads and carpet tack strips, more paper towels and a six foot ladder). Mom and Pops were indefatigable in their efforts to scrape, tear, and pry the house into tip-top shape. Russ was our captain and we the crew. He had us scraping paint off window sills, prying the floor to ceiling mirrors off the living room wall, tearing out wall paper in the bathrooms and linoleum in the kitchen, and sucking giant tufts of fur and dust out of the refrigerator motor (it had happily sucked everything that passed by its grates for decades and never been cleaned).
Saturday night we treated our helpers to dinner at the Birdsall Tavern and enjoyed sitting, sipping a few cold brews and inhaling a delicious dinner. Russ and I collapsed into our sleeping bags on the attic floor, the only fur-less, dust-less corner of our house.
Sunday, there was demolition of deteriorating and useless wooden shelves, more scraping, bush-hacking and junk hauling to the (thankfully) cavernous garage but there were no breaks. The stove was beyond salvaging and we hauled it out of the kitchen. Every window blind and curtain was pulled down and fixtures removed. We hacked out tangled phone cords and hung a new shower curtain. Around 5pm, ravenous, I managed to sneak in a phone call to a local pizza place and ordered 2 large pies for delivery. We sat around the makeshift dining room table and surveyed our progress. It looked like a different house.
It was starting to look like our home.
*****Promise pics will follow soon. Just wanted to update before I crash into bed.
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